And We're Back!
by KyandiPyrate
Summary: So, Sora and Riku are back after defeating Organization XIII, but how are they supposed to explain this? The reserved Sayuri is set as Riku's tutor. What happens when she makes it plain that she wants nothing to do with him?
1. Chapter 1

_As you may notice this fic is under revision. I apologize to those who have been waiting on this and those I have disappointed. I intend to finish this._

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><p><em> <em>Brrriiiiiiiiiiing!<em>_

"Ugh!" Sayuri rolled over in bed. "Make it stop!"

With a swift _thwack_ of her pillow, she knocked the annoying alarm clock clear off of her bedside table and right into her dresser. The device fluttered a few more times before giving in to the damage it sustained.

_ _Curse any day that feels like a Monday...__she thought with a frown. Into the shower she went, dragging her feet. Her morning ritual never took long: her hair—which was short and a icy blue colour—was naturally very manageable so fixing it wasn't a hassle, she had set her uniform out the night before and her breakfast usually consisted of two toaster pastries.

Yuri galloped down the stairs, careful to hold her glasses in place. She had an hour before homeroom. The bus would be at her door in fifteen minutes and take another ten to carry her to school. __That leaves me somewhere around half an hour to chat with Yuuzuki and the others,__she cheered inwardly. __I wonder what she did over the weekend,__ the girl pondered as the toaster worked its magic.

"Sayuri!"

She lifted her head. Kyoko Kurosawa, Yuri's mother, stood in the doorway of the kitchen tapping her feet in impatience. Yuri swallowed guiltily.

"I know that that's not all you're going out of this house with."

"Mom! I only have a couple minutes before the bus comes." Which _was_, in a sense, true; she had less time between that point and when the conversation started though her mom wasn't hearing it.

Mrs. Kurosawa trudged into the room and went to the stove, turning it on before going into the fridge. Yuri let out a few more cries of _'Mom!'_ before she acknowledged that her wishes were no longer valid. Maybe they never were. In defeat she sat at the table. _Whatever_. _She only has ten minutes anyway._ And what did she get for her doubt? An egg, cheese and sausage sandwich on a saucer was placed before her.

She looked at her mom in disbelief. "Really?"

"Every bite," was the reply as the woman set to making another batch of eggs.

The blunette was fully prepared to argue.

"Don't backtalk your mother, Sayuri." She turned to see her dad shuffling into the kitchen.

Nowaki Kurosawa yawned unabashedly into his newspaper. Somehow he always managed to have it when he came down in the presence of his family on his way to work. In their early forties, her parents were so tightly knit that even if one of them showed up in the middle of the conversation, they'd somehow know what to say. Yet once her father was in assent, she dare not argue.

Yuri ate quickly. With as little force as possible she dropped the plate into the sink. "Thanks for the food."

"Your manners are late," her mother muttered, though she did smile.

"See ya, Dad," she went on. "I think I hear the bus."

"Mm-hmm..." He lifted his cheek to her kiss, not taken by her lie.

The bus actually was honking in front of their home by the time she got to the road, thank goodness. Yuuzuki was already seated and they chatted all the way to school about their weekends. It was not surprising to hear that her friend had spent her Saturday at the local lounge with some others from their circle. The beautiful grinning redhead's blue eyes were gleaming as she spoke. Yuri never did things like that. She listened with the same level of curiosity that she always did, reflecting on her own dull Saturday of reading and doing homework.

Sometimes she hated being such an introvert, but she'd never complain. __I can't trouble her___, _she thought. So Yuri smiled and nodded, smiled and nodded. You'd never guess that she was withering in the shadow of the kind of girl she dreamed she could be.

During the last lull in their conversation, the white Clock-tower of Destiny came into view. Behind it stood Fortuna Academy, one of the only schools on that side of the island, pristine and elegant in its structure. The bus pulled in and circled the fountain of the school's founder, Hidekuni Saga, who was holding up an apple as a symbol of academia.

Those who were already bustling around the school grounds came out to see some of their friends off of the bus. Sayuri and Yuuzuki made their way into the halls, stepping into the fog of gossip that was in the air.

"Did anything happen at the lounge?"

Zuki shook her head. "I don't remember anything. Nobody fell. Nobody so much as sneezed. It was just a good karaoke night."

The duo finally reached their lockers. Under the guise of dutifully unpacking her bag, the blunette spared a look around. Whatever it was, it had everyone chatting too busily for a normal Monday morning. Just as she was beginning to worry that it was something important, one of Yuu's classmates ran up to them. The girl's face was alight with a flush from all the gossiping she was most likely doing.

"Why do you guys look so dull?" she inquired. "Didn't you hear?"

"Hear what?" Yuri replied. "Why is everybody so active this morning?"

The girl glanced over her shoulder as if she expected someone to be eavesdropping. Then in a hushed voice she said, "Sora and Riku are supposed to be coming back to school today!"

"You don't mean Sora Hashimoto from our class, do you, Aoi?" Yuuzuki sounded skeptical. "Or Riku Yamaguchi from Sayuri's class?"

"Oh but I do."

The blunette frowned. This is why she hated gossip. It was all a bunch of hopes spun into a cape of delusion. No one had heard from Sora and Riku in quite some time now. After a lapse in time that everyone in town decided to mark as a case of merely being unable to recall what happened after a big storm rocked the islands, they disappeared. Their parents and the local law enforcement looked frantically but came up with nothing. Even Kairi, the girl closest to them didn't have anything to say to the authorities. At least when she went missing a couple weeks ago she had the decency to return in a timely manner. Presumed dead, Sora and Riku had missed more than a year of school. What were they going to come back to do? _Nothing, that's what._

Yuri pushed her bag onto her shoulder. "And how, pray tell, do you know this?"

Her doubtful tone did not go over the other girl's head. "I only got it from the horse's mouth." Aoi glanced over her shoulder once more. "You didn't hear it from me..."

"Yes, we did," the blunette chimed.

"...but Hiori told me that Yuki told her, that Ume told Len, her brother, that when she was babysitting the principal's daughter, Mr. Yamaguchi and Mrs. Hashimoto came to the house to talk to Principal Saga about Sora and Riku attending school again."

Sayuri's frown deepened significantly. Yuu, on the other hand, seemed a bit brighter. "Are you serious? No way!"

Aoi grinned at the encouragement. "Oh, yes. And Yuki told me that Kyoko told her that Kairi told Selphie, some first year girl, that she had met with them on Saturday night."

"That's amazing!" Yuuzuki exclaimed, clapping her hands lightly. "Don't you think it's amazing, Sayu-"

There wasn't a trace of amazement on Sayuri's face. If those two were to be allowed back as if nothing had happened, then what would become of the delinquents who already miss classes? Will they start to leave for longer periods now that they know that they could just come back later? How is that fair to those who've been diligently attending their classes? Those two missed their first senior term final exams and almost half of their second term. What was Principal Saga thinking?

Because of her bubbling irritation, she didn't answer the question asked. "I'm going to class." The door to her locker slammed shut.

"Hey..."

Things seemed to blur around her; the blunette marched into her homeroom and barely made it into her seat when she plopped herself down at her desk. __How improper! I can't believe that they have the gall.__The only place Yuri felt comfortable ranting was in her mind, so she didn't hold back. __Sora is a naive, immature kid who can't so much as eat without making a joke about it. And Riku...__Her hands fisted on the desk at the memories of her classmate. _He was in the kendo club, he was good looking car and he was a player._

Unlike the idiotic, giggling masses, she never even wanted to sit at the same table as he did. The bell for registration rang and the rest of her classmate filed into the room still chatting about the morning's news. Yuri pulled a textbook out of her bag and proceeded to read chapter 12 of __The Biological World__for her test at fourth period.

Somewhere in the bustle of it all, their homeroom and English teacher, Mr. Takashima, came into the room with his briefcase and a Styrofoam cup of coffee in hand. From the front of the room, the class president stood and initiated the daily "stand" and "bow" routine.

After the class had sat again, he leaned forward in his chair to sip his coffee and open the register. "I hope that your weekends went well."

Yuri's name came pretty quickly during roll call. Mr. Takashima didn't comment on her response of "Mm-hmm..." from over her book. He didn't care how you answered once you actually did.

"Wakaba?"

"Here," chimed a boy from the very back of the class.

"Yama..."

The man ended on a hum of disapproval as if he had expected something to be different. It hardly made sense that he kept that name on the register anyway. The kid hadn't shown up for over a year yet no one had been sent to take his place. It's not like there haven't been transfers.

_ _It's not being morbid,__she noted, __if giving up hope is healthier than keeping it.__

The orange haired man shrugged and closed the book when the classroom door was pushed open. "Yamaguchi: present, sir."

Yuri's book fell from her hands. He mouth fell open. _Impossible._ And yet, there, in front of the chalkboard stood a young man in a navy blue pants and plaid icy blue tie over a short sleeved white shirt. His hair was over his shoulders, much longer than she remembered, but it __had__ been a long time. Likewise, he had sprout up like a tree. And did he somehow get more muscle over what was already fit build?

Riku looked around the room with what seemed like apprehension. But that wasn't likely. She had to remind herself that this was the most popular guy that wasn't at school. It didn't take long for the crowd to erupt into an unquenchable mob of 'I missed you so much' and 'Dude!' and 'I can't believe it'. There were even a few people murmuring 'I knew it'. Mr. Takashima wasn't surprised though he did smile pleasantly.

All of the excitement slapped Yuri in the face and made her collect herself. She retrieved her book, rest it back on her desk and buried her nose into it.

"So nice of you to join us, Yamaguchi-kun." He opened his register for a moment; most likely to mark the name of the latecomer. "On your last leg and you're still pushing your luck?"

"My apologies," the boy answered. "Sora forgot where his class was so I had to show him. And that was after Principal Saga lectured our ears off."

"You're lucky to have survived."

"Thank you, sensei." The lines of hesitation in his forehead smoothed at that.

Mr. Takashima looked out into the faces of his elated students. "Well, it's no secret that you missed quite a bit. You're going to need someone who can bring you up to speed with you work." He grinned when hands shot up into the air from volunteers; his grin widened as he locked onto his ever interesting victim. " Oh, Kurosawa-kun."

Her hand twitched, though she didn't move her book from blocking her face. "Yes, Takashima-sensei?"

_ _He's enjoying this,__ she quickly realized. "I would like to appoint you his tutor. You're at the top of the class so this should be like nothing to you. I'm sure that you're familiar with Yamaguchi-kun."

"I am."

"So there should be no problem." The man gave a definitive nod that said 'And that's that'.

He assigned Riku a new seat near the window which caused everyone after that one to have to move down. Luckily it didn't move Yuri much farther from the back door, but still. Why did her routine have to be shuffled for him? She had to say something. Riku took his seat and the bell rang again for first period. Her mouth refused to open to complain.

The class rose and bowed once again to their teacher before they began to file out. Maybe she would do better with less people. By the time she had stood, half the class had already left.

"Takashima-sensei," she said loudly, hands on her desk. "I really don't want to tutor Riku!"

The man paused what he was doing. A few girls who hadn't quite gone through the doorway yet stopped to look back at her and whisper. Riku, himself, was still in the room. Perhaps, she should've waited a little bit longer before she decided to speak her mind.

But she wasn't being let off the hook that easily. "And why would that be?" Takashima inquired, genuinely intrigued as if he hadn't expected to get a response out of her so soon.

Yuri overestimated the power of her infantile bravado. "Um..." She looked down at her fingers, straining over each other. "I just don't, sensei."

"That doesn't explain anything. You're one of the best students in the school. Wouldn't you want to help a returning student?"

"You mean one who inexplicably disappeared and now wants to pop up and be catered to?" She shook her head. "No, I wouldn't, sir. I don't think it's fair."

Takashima put a hand under his chin. "You know, I hadn't really thought about it like that. You do put us all in an interesting position, Yamaguchi-kun."

The boy in question was silent for a long while. "I'm sorry. I don't want to cause any trouble. She doesn't need to do anything, sensei. I can just pick up the material by myself."

"You __are__bright," the teacher conceded. "But not that bright, I'm afraid."

"Well, I _do_ have friends," he insisted. "Kairi can easily give me her notes."

Takashima tapped his lip with his finger, as if to really consider it. "Yeah, I don't think that will be sufficient," he concluded. He looked over to Sayuri who was out rightly fidgeting now. "You will tutor him, ne, Kurosawa-kun?"

She kept her head bowed, terribly embarrassed now and red to the tips of her ears. "Yes, sir."

_ _You bet,__the man's smile said. Yuri hastily snatched up her bag. She'd been humiliated enough for one day. Or so she thought. Imagine her surprise when she saw people staring through the hall window. The door still hadn't been closed so there were even more girls watching and whispering.

Even so she needed to leave the room. Once she hit the hall, the jeers came.

"Who does she think she is?" hissed one girl.

"She's so plain," sneered another. "Riku doesn't need someone like her around him."

"What a pretentious weirdo." The boy who said this shoved his shoulder into her as she passed, pushing he to one side.

Yuri shut her eyes against her tears and ran. The one time she stood up for herself, she ended up being hated by not only Riku but her fellow classmates all for her sensei's viewing pleasure.

_Great. ___Will I ever win?__


	2. Chapter 2

Yuri was on the roof, leaning her back against the wall. It was lunch time now – she could tell from the chime of the clock tower that the hour had changed. __Good,__ she thought. She had successfully avoided Phys Ed. There was no way that after painting that big bull's eye on her back she would go into the gym with a throng of angry girls to play a contact sport. _Thanks, but no thanks._

With a sigh her eyes found the horizon. The sapphire hued ocean glistened in the distance. How she wished she could be there, flexing her toes in the warm sand. Instead, she had shut herself up on the roof of the school building. Admittedly she could have handled things a bit better. She could've pulled Takashima aside and talked to him about her feelings on the matter away from prying eyes and scorning sneers. Just remembering the malice that burned into her skin from the gazes that followed her down the halls and through the classes she had the heart to attend sent a chill down her spine.

Her soul nearly soared from her body when the door to the rooftop creaked open.

"Yuri?" Yuuzuki came into view, a plastic bag in her hand. "Have you been hiding up here this entire time?"

"No." __Yes…__

It was obvious which voice she had heard. "I was worried about you. Here;" She sat beside her friend and gave her a carton of milk.

Yuri gratefully too k a swig of the drink. She felt that a question was coming so she braced herself. Zuki shuffled through the bag to take out another carton for herself and a curry bread which she handed over to the blunette.

After all her procrastination, the redhead finally found the guts to ask, "So did you really say all that stuff this morning? About Riku?"

The way she said his name was gentle and full of a sort of sympathy that told Yuri that she could really get in trouble if she didn't tread lightly. "Yes," she breathed. "It was stupid, I know. You don't have to say it."

For a while she didn't say anything. "Stupid?" Her voice was a hushed whisper. "For someone who hates attention, you sure drew a lot with that fiasco of yours. How could you?" Her tone got harder. "You never so much as complain to the lunch lady when she gets your order wrong but you'd say all those things about a guy you hardly know?"

"Hey, hey! I didn't really say that much."

Zuki shot her a stern look that reminded her of her mother. "Oh, yeah? Then just what were you admitting to have said? I'm hearing that you called him a good of nothing jock and made it seem like he was beneath you."

Sayuri listened with a gaping mouth. And here she thought that Zuki knew her so well. __Didn't we already establish that I was on the roof most of the day? __She couldn't say it like that, but at least now she knew that there was someone or some persons who were really trying to put her on the hit list. _Stupid fangirls…_

"I never said anything like that," she replied, the accusations stinging her still. "I told Takashima-sensei that I didn't think that it would be fair for me to help him after all this time, but I still agreed to do it in the end."

Zuki frowned in confusion. "That's it?"

"That's it."

"So somebody's lying out there?"

"Apparently. I can't exactly say that there aren't people who would want to make my life miserable after what happened." Yuri sipped her milk. "But to think that they went so far."

Now back in her right mind, Yuuzuki sagged against the wall. Was she feeling guilty now? In a dark corner of her mind, Yuri hoped so.

"So what're you going to do?"

That was a good question. "I'll come up with some plan. I'm not exactly sure about the details, though. Will you help?" The beseeching eyes found those of the girl beside her. "You're much better at dealing with people than I am."

Taking her best friend's hand, Zuki smiled apologetically. "It's the least I could do after coming at you like that."

"Don't think too much of it, alright?" the blunette chimed with a smile.

All of a sudden she felt just a little bit lighter. So long as Zuki was at her side, she figured that she could take whatever crap the monkeys could throw.

"I should stop hiding, shouldn't I?" she inquired receiving the redhead's nod in response.

This time she hoped that her bravado would last for more than two minutes. Her teeth tore hungrily into the curry bread, the warm, spicy meat inside the fluffy bun warming her and giving her body the sort of fuel it needed. Zuki picked the plastic bag back up and brushed off her skirt. Sayuri put her hand on the knob of the door to descend back into the jungle the same time that someone from the other side began to push it open.

A warm breeze gusted across and lifted a flurry of silver hair into her vision; she was frozen to the spot. Blue-green eyes held her hostage, unable to even gasp. A full, attractive mouth opened as if to say something but reconsidered before any sound emerged. A hope that he would speak fluttered. His voice had become a sweet tenor while he was away. And did his eyes become greener? Was it possible?

"Hey, Riku," called someone from further behind him. "What's the hold up? Is the view still the same?"

Hearing his name broke the spell. A surprised squeak found its way out of the blunette's throat that took everyone off guard. She reflexively pushed the door as hard as she could, forcing the body back out.

"Hey!" he protested.

But she threw herself against the piece of metal a moment later. What followed was a series of thumping the rolled all the way down to the first landing. An exclamation of frustration sounded at the end, different voices layered into the noise. The buzzing of her headache came a second before the pain did.

__Oh, kill me now, __Yuri brooded putting her face in her hands.

Soon footsteps from the other side retreated out of earshot. Her legs gave way under her, planting her on her rump as Zuki came toward her. She tried not to laugh at her friend who was red all the way to the tips of her ears.

"Well," she squatted so that she and her companion were at eye level. "if that was the first step of that big plan of yours, just let me say that it sucks already."


	3. Chapter 3

The news of her causing everyone's favourite duo to tumble on their heads went around faster than the rumor of their return. This time she got to hear firsthand how people misconstrued a story.

"Didn't you hear? Sayuri knocked Riku and Sora down the stairs."

"Oh, no way! I heard it was Sora, Riku _and_ Kairi. They say opened the door into them and pushed."

"But the door on the roof opens from the inward from the side she was on. Where'd you get that from?" The girl scoffed. "Anyway, its obvious she just shoved him."

"Him?"

"Riku, of course! She got all high and mighty because Takashima-sensei complimented her a little bit. She's probably trying to get attention."

"Well, everybody knows that Takashima-sensei likes to take people down a peg. I doubt she knows, but good riddance. She must've been living under a rock. Otherwise, she wouldn't go against Riku. I mean, come on; who's that stupid?"

"Her, clearly…Oh, shhh. Here she comes."

"We've been here a while," Yuri murmured as she walked toward her locker.

Yuuzuki didn't reply but she did lift her hand in a heartless wave to the gossiping girls when they greeted her. They watched Yuri with wide eyes, no doubt waiting to carry news of anything she did. The blunette made quick work of switching out her books. She felt if she stuck around too long, something would emerge and she'd regret it.

"They need hobbies," Zuki commented.

"They sure are making a hobby of kissing a certain somebody's behind."

"Sayuri!"

She pouted. No one else saw this side of her, but sometimes she just needed to vent. The rest of the day went the same way: they'd look, they'd say something polite to Zuki's face then they'd turn from her and whisper. The bus ride home was less annoying. Everyone had found something else to chat on about on their way home, thank goodness.

Yuri tried not to think about what had happened that day. She liked to keep her home life and her school life separate. Her parents weren't overly concerned and she liked it that way. She wasn't like some other teens got lonely after a while and felt "neglected", whatever that meant. She went into her house, the smell of fish frying coming from the kitchen.

"I'm home," Yuri called as she ascended the stairs to her room.

"Welcome back," Kyoko responded. "Do you have any homework?"

Her voice trailed out with a, "Nope," before her door shut.

And that was the end of that conversation. Who wouldn't want to be left alone like that? The privacy was golden!

Sayuri ran a bubble bath and played some music on her stereo. Shimmying over to the bathroom to the lyrics of some bubblegum pop song, the blunette placed her long forgotten glasses on her computer desk. In the security and sanctity of her room, Sayuri always felt free to be ever she pleased without having to deal with the irritating people around her judging her for it.

Her cell phone chimed from a few steps away. Up to her nose in lavender scented bubbles she did not want to pick it up, but the ring tone told her exactly who it was.

A wet hand reached out to grab the device. "Good evening, Takashima-sensei."

The man on the other end chuckled at her dry greeting. "Good evening, my ever interesting student." He sensed her rolling her eyes and laughed again. "I wish people could hear you when you talk to me. They wouldn't think it odd then for you to be so forward with your opinions."

"You know that I'd prefer not to be watched at all, Sensei. An outgoing nature promotes that. Besides, I get enough dirty looks as it is."

"Well you sure gave them something to talk about this morning."

"Can we not go into that? You had another reason for calling for calling, didn't you?" She wished that he would just get on with it.

But he was silent for a second. "I want you to spend at least an hour and a half everyday to tutor Riku."

At the sound of his name, her hand practically had a spasm and she nearly dropped her phone into the water." I don't see that happening, to tell the truth. Not every day. After what went down today doesn't that sound like too big a step?"

"Of course it does," he replied in a _duh_ tone. "That's precisely why you're going to do it, though I don't recall asking your opinion, my dear lily[1]. "

A scowl tugged at the edge of her lips as she sat up in the bath tub. "Do you realize how much this has affected me? Sensei, I'm basically on everybody's hit list. Putting myself in his shadow like that would kill me." This was all true, mind you but somehow she knew that the real reason for her refusal didn't go over his head unnoticed.

"So it isn't that you're intimidated by your pupil?"

Intimidated? She could've easily misinterpreted this to mean she was afraid that if she helped him, he would excel further than her in academics. But then she was back on the roof again. When he came up and their eyes met, he wasn't angry. He didn't even look put off when the realization of who she was registered in his eyes. She wondered what he thought in that moment. His mouth had opened his tongue curling to form a word. She wondered what it was he thought to say. Truth be told, he was too much to take in at one time like that. Yuri slid down a little further into the water, suddenly covered in goose bumps.

"Is your Yamaguchi fantasy done with?"

The blunette's eyes widened; she had forgotten that her teacher was still there. "I wasn't fantasizing. I was trying to figure how this would work."

Takashima hummed with laughter. "Right. I'm so sorry I implied otherwise. But you shouldn't try to dictate to him what you think is the best way. Talk to him about it."

She put a hand on her forehead. "_You_ talk to him about it. Does he even know yet?"

"No. You're going to tell him." He relayed clear instructions, fully confident in the part of her that wouldn't let her forget a word of it.

Yuri finally conceded. Sometimes she wondered why she fought with him. He was really manipulative. With a whispered 'bye', he hung up. She pushed the phone onto the seat of her toilet and ducked her head under the water. The sensation did a lot in the calming of her mind. From the beginning, she knew that she was being set up—that much was obvious—but how far did Takashima intend to let his game go?

She finished her bath and dried her hair. By then her father was home and dinner was served Nowaki having had changed out of his suit into a soft white shirt and dark cotton pants. Kyoko distributed bowls of rice and soup to eat with the fish. As her parents talked about their day, her thoughts would not obey her. They kept running back to __him___._ She wasn't supposed to be feeling so bothered, so damn affected by a memory. What if she actually got to sample the product she was pining after?

"Sayuri."

She sighed in relief when that train of thought crashed. "Yes, dearest Daddy?"

Nowaki's brows furrowed. "What has Shinichiro been saying to distract you so? Eat your dinner."

"Now, now," Kyoko chimed to soothe her husband. "I'm sure that Ichi has been behaving." Her eyes flashed back to her daughter. "You know that he's still single, don't you, honey?"

"It's really nothing." She had to stop her mother from going on. "Takashima-sensei is a good teacher and I'd prefer it stay that way. He's just trying to get me involved with another one of his 'benefit the student body' plots."

"I'm glad that he's in a position where he can keep an eye on you," her mother went on. "At least now I don't have to worry about what happens in your classes."

The impression that she finds out anyway wasn't missed by the other two who were at the table. Her father still didn't look quite convinced but so long as the hints to set his daughter up for marriage so soon were silenced, he let it be. He knew that Kyoko would defend her former student until she was blue in the face and preferred his bed to be warm rather than chilly on one side at night.

Meanwhile on the other side of the island in her own living room, Kairi was frowning deeply. "Sora," she whined. "You're not even trying anymore are you?"

The brunet threw his hands in the air. "I give up!" He folded his arms over his chest. "Algebra is a bunch of crap. Why don't they just say 2 instead of saying __x___ if_ they're the same thing?"

"Because you're supposed to be learning the concept, learning the process by which to find out on your own through substitution that the answer is 2."

"That's stupid. I'll really know that its 2 if they plainly put 2, right? Whose idea was this anyway?"

"I don't know," the auburn haired girl sighed, "some Greek guy?"

Sora's frown deepened. "I bet he had a hard childhood. Way to make life hard, Greek Guy," he mused to the ceiling.

The girl put her face in her hands. Why, oh why, did they set her as Sora's tutor? At first, she was ecstatic about it; she had an irrefutable reason to be by his side. But now that she was reminded of his relationship with his studies, she was less enthusiastic.

Kairi plopped herself onto the couch beside her pupil. "Riku," she called desperately. "Would you please get him to stop?"

The silver haired boy had been posted in the corner at the well sized oak dinner table, his old notes and notes he had borrowed from Kairi all spread before him. So far, he had gotten nowhere with his Biology homework. Not only were her notes less descriptive than he'd have liked, but she was not on the same level academically. His Advanced Biology teacher had agreed to let him stay if he could prove himself and keep up. There was no way that he'd make it like this.

Then there was Sora, who was being forced to think in algebraic expressions and not attack combinations. The sounds he made during the first hour were torture. He had only just settled to outright complaining.

"Is that your brain I smell burning?" the silver haired boy teased, needing to relieve the tension in his own head.

Sora gave him a classically Sora pout. "You can only laugh because you're good at this. I'd rather fight the Organization again….all of them," he amended in case his friends didn't completely get it.

Riku smiled. He, too, sometimes wished that he didn't let Sora talk him into leaving the Realm of Darkness where they could just relax together on the beach in eternal night. Not just because the task of catching up in the curriculum, though. Somehow his school life, which had been so easy t manage in the beginning, had become a headache of epic proportions

.

He had to see his old teammates who had gone on to the interschool kendo tournament and lost because some dufus got defeated by an opponent he could've beaten with his eyes closed. He had to see Aiko, the "girlfriend" he left behind who was now dating the captain of the baseball team. Mind you, he never really cared for the girl—she was too loud and much too arrogant for his taste—but she kept the other girls off of him. She tried to make a scene when she saw him, deliberately kissing her new boy toy as if she didn't realize that he was coming. She then proceeded to tell him how much he missed out on by abandoning her to run away with Sora. The daft brunet didn't catch the homosexual implication and grinned at the thought of being more important than her. Riku on the other hand shut her down immediately in front of the sprinkling of people that had gathered and wished her a good life before taking his leave.

But then there were two more headaches to be dealt with: Shinichiro Takashima and the Kurosawa girl. Takashima, he could handle. He had known the man for years. In contrast he knew absolutely _nada_ about the unfortunate blue haired girl. He watched her face that morning; she was fighting with herself to speak her opinion. She probably didn't want his girl problems to be transferred over to her. Of course the jealous bitches spun their lies anyway, but he didn't hold it against her, but somehow the girl attracted trouble.

He had to admit that she was an enticing vision on the roof, her face alight with shock and her eyes shamelessly scanning him. If Sora didn't call his name, he had a feeling that she would've kept staring. Had she been conscious of it? He wasn't sure. But the moment everything snapped into place, she shrieked. The next thing knew, she was shutting the door on him. Sora had been on his way up to push past him so when Riku lost his balance, so did he.

"Great. Another crazy broad…" he had murmured as he got up.

The entire situation was not cool at all.

"I don't think its fair after all this time," she had said.

__Like I don't already know that,__he thought wryly. She was the personification of all his apprehensions. And now he was being coerced into working with her.

"We're not going to get along well," he concluded

"Wha-?" Riku looked up to see Sora's eyes wide. "You're kidding right? My grades are that important to you?"

__No, but let's go with that___. _"You know how much I don't like idiots, Sor. I always excluded you, but now that we're back…" The boy shrugged vaguely.

He maintained his impassive expression and stared as the humor drained out of the brunet's face. Sora turned to Kairi with pleading eyes. "So, the __x__equals 2 due to transposition, right?"

The red head nodded dumbly. "Um, yeah. You think you can do the other one?"

Sora snuck a peek at his best friend in search of encouragement, but eventually gave up. "Sure," he sighed, pencil in hand.

Kairi smiled at the other boy over her pupil's head.__Thank you,__ she mouthed. Riku inclined his head in acknowledgment. Perhaps she finally realized the difference in their importance to Sora. _It's about time._

If only he had that sort of help. With a sigh of his own, he turned back to the papers. When his phone rang, he didn't even look at the screen. He was moving in autopilot as his mind searched for some clarity in Kairi's notes.

"Yes?"

The person on the other line was silent for a second. "Is this Yamaguchi-kun?"

__Yamaguchi-kun? Who even calls me that?__But the girl sounded so fragile and shy that he didn't even fault her for it. "It is," he replied his tone softer in response. "Who is this?"

There was another drag of silence. "Kurosawa. I'm in your homeroom."

In pure disbelief he spun so that his legs were no longer under the table. "_Sayuri_ Kurosawa?"

Sora looked up from his work then, he and Kairi giving the silver haired boy identical looks of surprise.

"Yes," came the soft reply. "I have something I need to say."

"I—I…" She was stammering? "Actually I want you to take me seriously. Aside from everything that happened today, I mean."

_ _Aside from tumbling down the stairs? It's unlikely that I'll let that one go, but now you have me curious.__ "Go on."

His two friends were already in front of him mouthing anxious questions. He couldn't answer them yet, not until he got answer. But she was taking so long….She didn't pass out did she? No way. She was more composed than that. So what was she doing?

That was it. "Listen, Sayuri…"

"Wait, Yamaguchi-kun!" The girl was frantic. "I need you!"

__Eh?__


	4. Chapter 4

Now, Riku had been confused by many things in his lifetime at some point—his hair color, the drive behind his mistakes in the past, Sora's intelligence level—but, he was never so confounded by one measly girl who did not just say what he thought she said.

As if to reassure him, she said it again. "I need you, Yamaguchi-kun."

"Is that so?" he inquired, having to shove away the hand Sora was waving in his face for attention to keep his tone neutral. "As I see it, you don't have any business with me."

She paused yet again, something he was beginning to associate with her poor conversation skills. "I thought you were gonna listen, unbiased," she said in a voice that made her seem small as a mouse.

Something panged in his chest—was it guilt?–and he couldn't find his tongue. Who was she to make him feel as if he was wrong? Perhaps she was more of a manipulator than she appeared...

"I want to start over," Sayuri went on. "I want to be to be your tutor." His skepticism was deafening in his silence. "I know that it doesn't seem like I want the chance—"

"You said as much yourself," he reminded her.

"Yes, but, it doesn't reflect on what I think of you as a person. Not to mention that that comment didn't exactly work in my best interest."

__No kidding.__ "But now get to the point." He turned back toward the table, leaning his elbows on the top, ignoring Sora's whispered comment of him being a jerk. "Why do you _need_ me? Better yet, why in the world should I help you?"

And just like that the mouse was gone. "Let's see, maybe because I'm in all of the same level classes as you are now so my notes are more relevant than those you would get from someone like, oh, I don't know, Kairi." She didn't see it, but Riku's hand reflexively moved to cover the papers on the tabletop before him. "And I'm in your homeroom so I would be easier to access than someone in one of your other classes. Takashima-sensei has made it so easy for you—"

"And that's why you're doing this, isn't it? Because Takashima said to." Riku had figured as much. "You don't care about it yourself, but because you're such a teacher's pet you're going to listen to him."

He had dealt with girls who were obsessed with him, girls who were desperate, even girls who were crazy enough to literally fight for the chance to bring him a book he forgot on his desk. He had never met a girl who chose put up with him for the sake of someone else. Shoot, he never met a girl who 'put up with him', period.

And what he hated the most was that she was absolutely right. She was a ridiculously studious girl so he would expect that her notes would be as immaculate as his would've been. But did he want to have to depend on her? She didn't seem as easy to manipulate as other the rest of the gawking female population. She seemed like too much work.

__Don't be an idiot,__ a voice in his head whispered. __Can you really afford to give up this chance? Do you really think that you can get a better deal than this? She's not telling you to be nice to her and she doesn't care about spending any unnecessary time with you. She's a tool.__

Of course he spent a couple seconds considering it, but there was not much of a choice. Not that he'd ever admit it.

"So." The silver haired boy leaned back in his seat. "What do you get out of this? Is Takashima's opinion of you that important?"

"It's very important," she replied without hesitation. "He's one of the only people whose thoughts matter to me."

_ _I wonder why.__It wasn't as if he and his teacher weren't familiar enough with each other for him not to know if there was something afoot. __But is it even any of my business?__Riku mused.__What if they're dating or something? ___Was that what made her develop the confidence that rang out in her voice? _He couldn't tell. Not that he couldn't find out.

"Whatever. We can talk about this tomorrow," he concluded. "That is, if you're still interested in this whole thing after sleeping on it."

"Will you still be interested?" She became the mouse again, but he wouldn't be fooled.

This time he paused to look as best he could at the phone at his ear. "You'll know," was his cryptic response.

With that he hung up. He felt the need to have the last word. Since when was he driven to such childish ways he wasn't sure, but if that's the game she was playing, he wasn't about to lose. He sought to beat out his doubts that were personified in her. And being who he was, there was hardly a doubt that he wouldn't.

Yuri stared dumbly at her phone's screen when the double tone that signaled disconnection sounded in her ear. In disbelief she watched until it went back to her wallpaper. __He did ___not___ just hang up on me,__she fumed silently. The shout that was building up in her throat was forcibly shoved back down. Takashima would never hear the end of it if her father sensed he had too much of a hand in her current state of frustration. He would never let her hear the end of it he got into any sort of trouble with her father. That in mind, she swallowed her fury on a sigh. At least she got that conversation out of the way. Now all she had to do was wait; the ball was currently in Riku's court.

Her phone chimed a familiar tune for second time that night. The text read: "hope you did what I said. sleep well, my lily." __Oh please.__

She frowned at the device. Once upon a time, that would've been flattering. Now, all she did was roll her eyes. She remembered the tone in Riku's voice when he asked her about him. For whatever reason, she just figured he wouldn't tell anyone at school, but she wouldn't be surprised if one of his ditsy friends did. How else did he think that people found out they had returned home?

Yuri knelt up in her bed to stretch the kinks out of her back. __I don't care if he thinks that there's something between us,__she chanted in her mind. __I don't care.__

Mentally, his blue-green eyes narrowed at her.

_ _Don't you look at me like that. Say what you want.__

An eyebrow raised as if to say _'You would put your fate in my hands?'_

_ _You can't do anything to me___._

Another raised so his expression was one of disbelief. _You'd like to think so wouldn't you? But you're only playing nice so that I don't ruin you_.

_ _If you did, then you 'Mr Perfect' persona would be shot to hell.__

A careless shrug. _Sometimes it's better to to be dark than to be nice. _

_ _I don't need cheap tricks. I've got my wit.__

_Then shall we put it to the test?_

With a scowl, Sayuri yanked her blanket over her head and shut off her light. __Try me.__

The girl refused to acknowledge that she was really just arguing with herself lest the extent of her growing crazy make itself prominent.

In the corner of her room, a black figure with burning yellow eyes watched her hungrily from its position on the ceiling. It had been watching her mental debate with mild interest but opted to remain hidden for the time being. Though staying with her as she slept was an indulgence, it wasn't time for them to reunite just yet.


	5. Chapter 5

This morning wasn't like the one before. Rather than waking due to the bell solo from her alarm, Sayuri was wrenched from dreamland by the sound of her mother yelling from outside her door.

"Young lady, get your behind out of that bed," Kyoko screeched. "You're going to be late for school!"

__Oh my gosh...__The blunette shot off of her mattress, nearly falling on her face. She snatched up her glasses and her eyes shot to the clock on her night table. It read _9:00 AM_. The bus had come and gone from 7:30.

"Holy sh—Mom!" Yuri stumbled into the bathroom. "Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"Why didn't I what?" the woman exclaimed, her voice becoming shrill. "I thought you were already gone. You know how you get some days, all independent and whatnot that you feel you can walk to school if you get up at the crack of dawn. How was I supposed to know that you weren't even awake yet?"

The blunette tried not to choke on the toothpaste foam in her mouth. "Maybe," she muttered around her brush, "if you realized that you hadn't met me in the kitchen then you'd have known, Mom!"

"Don't you take that tone of voice with me young lady!"

"Right, right." Yuri hopped into the shower that she had left running. "I'm sorry. It's just that now I'm super late."

Yet, why didn't she feel as bothered as she sounded? She had had the best sleep of her life the previous night. There was something ethereal about the state of unconsciousness she made her way into. It wasn't as if she was overworked or anything the day before, but she had fallen so deeply that she doubted that anything could've woken her.

"Sayuri, it's been twenty minutes!" Kyoko shouted.

Standing in front of the mirror, staring into her own eyes the girl hadn't really heard her mother's call. It was strange, she felt as if she was seeing herself as a passerby would. Not to say that she looked any better than she did usually, but the sensation of not being completely in her own body had her frozen to the spot. Though the minute she acknowledged it, it faded.

"Do you not want to get to school at all today?"

She blinked. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

…...is what she said. In reality, she didn't make it out of the house until another ten minutes later since Kyoko had insisted that she eat something ("I'm already late Mom!" "That doesn't mean that you get to skip the most important meal of the day.").

Yuri ran out to the edge of the sidewalk and looked around. Most of her neighbors had already left for the morning so she had to go down the block to the old lady that owned the nearby convenience store. After begging the nice woman for a ride, the blunette had to brace herself for the ride of her life. The smell of cat dander was thick in the air. She believed that she was sitting on a soft squeaky toy ...that was soaked with dog drool. Even so, she hadn't the heart to complain.

This was going to be one _long_ ride.

The uncomfortable silver haired boy adjusted himself in his seat. His first class was English with Takashima. For the umpteenth time, the boy shot a glance at the empty seat on the opposite side of the room. When their homeroom teacher had taken the register and got no answer on 'Kurosawa' on any of the five times he called it, his mood inexplicably changed. Somehow, the man found it unavoidable to keep glaring at Riku as if he had a hand in his student's disappearance. This made the boy much more than just a little uncomfortable.

He hadn't said anything too bad to her the night before so what was taking her so long to show? That line of thinking made him miss the introduction to the new topic. __Crap___. _He scolded himself. __Stay focused, you idiot...__

_ _Whoa, whoa. I'm having a lapse. Words like 'idiot' and 'moron' are reserved for people like Sora.__

Even the side of him that he was arguing against had to agree. __True. Let's leave that alone.__

And just like that Riku was back on his game, neatly the recording notes on hyperboles that Takashima had been kind enough to put on the board. He would not allow this girl to cost him. Not after he resolved to put effort into coming back to this island and trying again. This was _not_ his fault.

The class was scheduled to be for an roughly 50 minutes. Thankfully, Riku spent the first thirty of those focused on his work, though, it had to be admitted that there were bursts of '_Where is she?'_ followed by a glance to her seat just to find that it was still lacking her body.

Once he even thought he saw her there in the corner of his eye, the curve of her face tilted toward him. She was looking at him? Staring? Why? Of course when he actually gave his attention, he didn't see anything, making him even more upset that he was imagining things.

He was beginning to think that perhaps he was over reacting and there was nothing wrong. She just had a little bit of car trouble. Her alarm didn't go off. Something trivial that would make him slap himself for not thinking of it.

That was until that scent hit his nose. He thought that he'd never smell it again, but there it was, every bit as pungent as he remembered.

The unmistakable scent of darkness...

Brushing the pet hair and dirt from her skirt, Sayuri pushed the classroom door open. At once all eyes were on her, even Takashima's.

A look of frustration crossed his features with a tinge of relief lining his eyes. "How nice of you to finally join us, Kurosawa-kun. Here I was thinking that you had decided to take the day off."

Yuri shrugged. "I'm sorry, but things were really hectic."

"Yeah, I bet. Take your seat." He motioned to her desk with the book in his hands.

She gave a curt nod and turned to walk away. Her eyes danced over those of her peeved classmates to those of the silver haired boy at the window. She hoped to find some sort of sign to confirm what they had talked about the night before but the minute her four eyes met his pair of blue-green ones he immediately looked away, covering his nose.

Sayuri did not want to admit that she wished that the ground would just swallow her whole. If he could smell her from all the way over there then...She looked around, flushing in embarrassment as she sank into her seat.

__Oh kill me now___, _she brooded for the second time that week.

Once morning classes were over, she wanted to dash. Her bag was on her shoulder and everything.

"Kurosawa-kun," she heard from behind her. "Would you accompany me to the teachers lounge?"

She had not made it more than 4 steps away from the classroom. Had he been camping out there while they had their other classes? Sometimes she really wondered Takashima had nothing else better to do as she turned to nod to her homeroom teacher.

They did not say a word to each other until they were both seated at his desk (he had insisted that she pull up a chair). Yuri sat silently as the other teachers mulled around, some leaving, some snacking, all minding their own business.

The orange haired man placed his books on his desk and began to speak in a low voice. "What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you know time?"

"I woke up late," she replied simply. "I slept really well last night."

"That's not what's important here. Why were you waltzing through my door when I was almost half way through my lesson?" His volume hadn't gotten any higher, but his tone was harder.

Yuri hesitated for a split second. "Because I had missed the bus, I had to hitch a ride with someone else. The lady I caught a ride with ended up getting a flat tire. I had to walk here. Now if you're done making something out of nothing, I'll be on my way to see Yuuzuki. She hasn't heard from me all day."

The girl had gotten up from her seat and proceeded to move it back to where she had gotten it from. She was about to leave when he grabbed her wrist. He was taking a serious chance doing with witnesses around but she refused to let him shake her.

"Takashima_-___sensei__," she stressed, "I am not your responsibility so stop acting like you're my father."

A chair dragged against the ground and he released her as if she had shocked him. His lowered head turned back to face his things. The blunette straightened her tie to make it seem as if nothing was going on even though her heart was pounding in her chest.

Before she made to go again, he spoke. "If there's anything bothering you, you know that you can tell me, don't you, lily?"

Sayuri pursed her lips. "I'll see you later, Ichi," she whispered as her feet took her to the door.

She refused to give him any other response because there were some things she couldn't tell him. Like how she saw something black and strangely humanoid in the side mirror before she heard the tire practically explode. Like how when she had climbed out of the car once it had stopped swerving to check the extent of the damage, she looked up and saw the creature – it had stuck half its body through the driver's window – begin to pull what looked like the kind of heart one would find on a Valentine's Day card out of the old lady's chest. Like how when it saw her, it grinned and spared his victim, letting the glittering heart descend back into her just to have her get a heart attack from shock.

No. As much as she liked him, she couldn't tell Takashima that when she saw the beast the first thing she thought about was his missing little brother.


	6. Chapter 6

Yuri frowned at her reflection in the glass window of the room she and Zuki had retreated to for lunch. Raindrops pattered at the glass, mirroring her morbid feelings. She was secretly happy that Zuki hadn't asked many questions and accepted the explanation she had gotten along with an apology. The redhead had maintained her smile, like always. __Why can't I be like that?__Yuri had always wondered. Was it the plan of some higher power to taunt her with a best friend so unlike her? Although she could never find it within herself to hate the girl, envy was always present when she watched her attract the attentions of friends and strangers alike.

Her mood did not improve with all of that thinking. If anything, it got worse.

"Here you go." Yuri looked up to see the girl she was comparing herself to handing her a bottle of some milkshake concoction. "You still seem down. I know that you're worried about how Mrs. Shiraki is doing, but I'm sure that she's OK." She sat a little on the desk they were sharing. "We can go see her after school if you want."

__As if___._ "That's OK," Yuri replied. "I don't want to see her."

After a second or two, Zuki added, "It wasn't your fault, you know."

"Of course it wasn't _my _fault." The blunette looked further out the window.

The other girl's smile wavered and the hard tone of her friend's voice, but she immediately shoved it firmly back into place. "Well, Yuyu, there's someone in the hall who I think wants to talk to you."

"Who is it? And how do you know they're still there?" Yuri really had no mind to deal with any annoyingly pointless conversations; her day has been weird enough but she still needed to find out what the hell went through that silver haired boy's head earlier.

"I just do," the redhead said with a conspiratorial wink. "Should I send them in? I swear its nothing stupid."

A bland wave gave her permission to leave and alert whoever the visitor was. How had they even found the two anyway? They were in the old art room which only the old art students knew was not in use and used to get away sometimes. Was this person a classmate of hers?

She heard the door open and close. As the rain continued its relentless flow, she raised her eyes to look at the very boy she sought in her mind. Something told her that with the way her day was going that she should have guessed that it would've been him. Yuri said nothing to him, even so, and turned her eyes back to the window.

Riku was not fooled by the blunette's show of not caring that he had come to see her. He had seen the flicker of surprise in her eyes although it proved to be difficult enough to take note of subtleties and not to hold his nose in disgust at the odor that clung to her body. _How did she come into contact with such a thick darkness and not have it affect her mind?_

He abruptly pulled himself to a stop. Just because she didn't outwardly show her instability didn't mean that it did not exist. Yet another reason he was wary of working with her; she was too introverted. With all that she kept inside, she might've been a completely different person than she showed the world.

He would know about it. He used to be the exact same way. Looking back on it, he saw it as his own immaturity that ultimately cost him so much. Would it be possible—or even useful—for him to lend his wisdom on the matter?

The silver haired boy took the seat that he supposed the other girl had sat in. "Yamaguchi-kun," the blunette said as he got comfortable. "How can I help you?"

"I do believe that we're supposed to be helping each other."

Finally, she met his eyes. "Is that the conclusion that you came to?"

"Was that not the idea you shared last night?"

He frowned at the indifferent glance she gave him. "True. But you said that you would've let me know whether or not you were interested. All I got this morning was you turning up your nose at me."

__Oh. She saw that?__And here he thought he was being covert. When she looked at him, it was as if the scent arrowed straight for him, pulling at him, nagging those parts of him that was still familiar with its lure. Even as he thought it, he felt the tendrils of darkness reaching across the desk to him. He had to find out what had happened.

"I'm sorry." Riku lowered his head slightly in a apologetic bow. "I caught a whiff of something awful from outside. It made my nose run so I was just trying to relieve myself. It had nothing to do with you, Sayuri."

It was obvious that she didn't buy it and he didn't really hold it against her; she did smell very faintly of someone's cat. "I see." He wondered just how much that was because as she said that, her gaze drifted toward the lightening shower of rain on the glass. "Well, I think that I should just give you my notes. You can keep them for as long as you need to. Any questions you have you can just ask during homeroom or whatever."

"And that saves you from those girls, how? I thought that the purpose of our co-operating with each other was to protect you from the sting of all that stuff you said yesterday."

As if waking up from a dream, the girl blinked hard. She narrowed her eyes and looked around the room. What just happened? Her glasses weren't foggy. Riku laid his hand on the desk, his pinky finger brushing her clenched fist. With wide eyes, she flinched away from the contact. At her movement, another wave of darkness tingled the boy's nerve endings.

"Sayuri," he began, speaking carefully and slowly. "Are you alright?"

The blunette swallowed. "Yeah, I'm fine."

__Then why do you sound so confused? __"Then tell me, what were we talking about just now?"

Her petite features crinkled into a look of displeasure. "Why? Don't you remember?"

Riku sat back in his seat. "I'm not the one," he said with his gaze steady, "who's acting like they were just let out of a box."

_ _Maybe not the ___best___ choice of words___,_ he thought after brief reflection.

Sayuri shot up out of her seat, the chair screeching against the ground in protest of being forced backward. "A box? So you're calling me a wild animal or something?"

The older boy rolled his eyes. "No," he pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't mean it like that. I'm just saying that you're acting strange."

"What, so you're going to call someone to tame me?" she snapped in response. "Do I need to be put back in captivity, Riku?"

He hated that the one time she decided to call him by his given name, it was in an argument. "Sayuri, I didn't come here to cause any problems with you. Can't you see that?"

"Oh right, right!" The girl stalked over to the chalkboard at the front of the class. "Just get outta here. I'll give the notes to Zuki. She'll get them to you somehow. I don't really care anymore. Just..." Yuri threw her shoulder against the wall, hunching her shoulders as she wrapped he arms around herself. "Just leave me alone, why don't you."

Her voice broke on a huff. She wasn't crying was she? No way. Once again, he hadn't said anything that bad to her yet he was being made out like the bad guy. __Complete crap,__the boy fumed as he fisted his hands on the desk. If she didn't want him around then fine. Whatever.

He practically kicked the chair from under him and marched out of the room. His pace did not slow until he arrived at the teacher's lounge.

"Gotou-sensei." The biology teacher raised his eyes to his student, pushing his glasses up over his nose. "Have you seen Takashima-sensei?"

The round faced man shook his head. "No, I haven't."

"Thank you regardless, sir." Riku bowed and made to leave.

_ _Fine. I guess I can just find him later. This is no big deal.__He maneuvered through the senior's hall, into the lobby that connected the junior and senior wings of the school. Yet another portrait of Hidekuni Saga hung over the massive double doors that lead to the only place all the students of the academy could mingle with each other during school hours.

Riku headed across the floor to the corner full of familiar faces: Tidus was looking over Wakka's shoulder, calling out instructions about some handheld game the older boy was narrowing his eyes in focus at. Kairi and Selphie were sitting at the lunch table laughing about one thing or another with Sora sitting in the window seat, grinning around the bun protruding from his mouth.

Thankfully, no one had taken his seat beside Selphie nearest his best friend's perch. He removed his backpack and tucked it against the wall by the others'.

"Ney, Iku," the brunet called as he chewed. "Didju evr...fine Uri?"

The older boy sighed. "Do you expect me to understand you while your mouth is full of steak?"

The guilty party chewed furiously in an attempt to correct himself, but Kairi answered for him. "He's asking if you ever found Yuri. I haven't seen her since lunch started."

Riku wasn't enthusiastic about answering that question. "Yes. And I think you and I need to talk about that, Sora. Alone," he specified when the brunet looked at the others among them as if to get their attention for an announcement.

Though confused, he obeyed and hopped from his seat licking the sauce from the meat baked into the steamed bun off of his fingers. Riku could feel Kairi's worried eyes on his friend but he ignored her. He wouldn't have Sora reconsidering anything due to anything she had to say. What he felt toward her was not to be confused with hatred or disdain—for the first part of their time away he was dedicated to finding and saving her, one should note. However, he didn't like the fact that Sora would allow her to cloud his judgment depending on the place and time. The silver haired boy was not much for the power struggle, but he would still admit that he was relieved that his word held more weight to the boy with the Kingdom Key than some come-lately girl.

Once he and the one in question had moved an acceptable distance away from the table, he turned to survey the rest of the room. In truth, he was reaching out with what limited power he had available to see if the ominous presence that was trailing behind the blunette was still in the building.

It wasn't too surprising to sense that it was.

"What's up, Riku?" Sora inquired folding his hands to support the back of his head. "Why can't Kairi and the others hear?"

His companion swallowed. "It's about something I don't think you'd want them involved in, least of all Kairi." That caught that other's attention, of course. "There's a dark presence in the academy."

"What're you talking about? You don't mean like a Heartless or anything, do you?"

"I mean exactly like a Heartless, though," he had to admit, "not like one I've encountered before."

Sora seemed as if his eyes were going to pop out of his head. "Are you serious, man? We just got a break."

"Hey, weren't you the one who was complaining about how you would rather fight Nobodies than do homework? Someone must've heard you."

"Gah!" He rubbed his hair roughly then stopped suddenly. "Wait, but if its here..." Sapphire eyes shot to pierce through the silver haired boy. "What are we doing here? We have to catch it!"

"That's the delicate area of this entire situation," he said somberly. "The Heartless seems to be trailing my classmate, Sayuri Kurosawa."


	7. Chapter 7

"You mean, the girl who slammed the door in your face? _She's _the onebeing stalked by a Heartless?" Sora groaned, bumping his head against the wall. "Now she'll be even worse."

"Probably," Riku conceded, arms folded over his chest. "Still, we don't want her to give in to it. Once that darkness gets a hold of you, its hard to get away from it."

He knew all too well what that was like – the darkness seemed like the easiest way to get what you want but it would eat away at you until you're nothing but a vessel for it to use to run rampant. You feel so powerful and so superior than those that oppose you that you sink deeper and deeper into it in order to gain more of its "benefits". It was a vicious exchange and he barely escaped. But sometimes he felt as if he's not as far away as he thought.

Sora seemed to have picked up on the down turn of his thoughts, smiling at him gently. "Hey. No need to worry. We've dealt with worse. With you being able to sense Heartless and me being able to kick butt, we'll be unstoppable."

His thumbs up and grin was just just encouraging as his words were, which meant they did nothing but make Riku laugh, as his best friend always had the ability to do. But Sora was right; he had defeated Ansem's Heartless with minimal assistance from Riku, survived Castle Oblivion without knowing the other was there, and defeated the greater majority of Organization XIII before the duo had even reunited to fight side by side. Whatever this thing was on their island, it wasn't on the same level as their previous opponents, though it could open the door to more Heartless who would want to lay claim to the world once again.

Riku sighed. "You do understand what this means, don't you?"

"That now we have to whack her?"

"No," he answered after a roll of his eyes. "It means we have to watch her closely. _Very_ closely."

Sora shrugged in indifference. "You're in her class. You've got this. If anything, you can just call for me and I'll be there."

"We're going to have to watch her after school, too, you know."

Rather than a shrug, there was a grin this time. "Well, isn't she supposed to be tutoring you or something? You've still got a good position to watch her from, Riku."

The silver haired boy narrowed his eyes at his best friend seeing how much fun he was having teasing him. "If she's going to be around me a lot, she's going to be around you a lot, too, genius."

The fall of Sora's grin was almost immediate. He couldn't have thought that he was going to throw this girl off on someone. While he was a goody two shoes, Sora had his moments, Riku noticed, when he was just as selfish as everyone else. It made him feel a bit better inside at these times, as if he wasn't so much worse that his companion.

Sayuri sank to the ground, arms around herself still as her arm dragged on the wall during her descent. She heard her name being called but she couldn't recognize the voice. The person hugged her and shook her and kept calling for her attention so she assumed that it was Zuki, not that it mattered. Her body felt so heavy and her head so full of cotton that she just wanted to sleep and not wake up. Even as her vision blurred she watched another person kneel before her – a dark figure with odd gold eyes – whose0 voice seemed to her mind and urge her to rest.

And she did, not even remembering when she had shut her eyes in the first place. The white curtains of the infirmary were shut around her and she could hear the nurse treating someone complaining of a stomach ache on the other side. Yuri turned on her side and frowned to herself. How had she woken up feeling so nice just to be feeling like this later on in the day? She wished passionately that the day would end and that she would get a do over when she woke up the next morning because whatever was happening to her couldn't be normal. She should've known that nothing good could have come from her looking forward to the day.

The door open and shut, the complaining student leaving with some advice to eat something filling and make tea with the peppermint bag she had given to him. Once he was gone, the curtain was pull back so that the nurse could stick her face in to spy over at Sayuri.

"How are you feeling?" she inquired softy as the blunette turned to face her.

"Better." Her head was no longer foggy, which was a relief. "Thank you. What time is it?"

The nurse came forward, helping Yuri who was trying to sit up. "Its a few minutes before the last bell. I was worried when you weren't waking up because your blood pressure was extremely low. I nearly called an ambulance for you, Kurosawa-kun."

"I'm glad you didn't. I wouldn't want my parents to be in a panic about me."

The nurse, pushed her bang out of her eyes and frowned. "You could have been in some serious medical trouble."

"Still," Sayuri replied, pushing her legs over the side of the bed and standing. "Thank you for not calling them. I feel fine now."

She didn't get away with just that, the middle aged woman giving her a list of things to do to help prevent fainting again. Yuri only heard half of the advice. She was too focused on getting out of the infirmary and going home that she wasn't looking properly when she was finally allowed into the hall. She walked straight past Sora and Riku, who stopped to watch her in suspicion.

"Sayuri!'"

She jumped at the sound of her name. The brunet came up to her with a wide smile, hands in his pockets casually. She envied the ease with which he approached a stranger like her; she could never do it without being forced to. Her eyes lifted over his shoulder to meet the cool stare of the very person she didn't want to see despite how stupidly handsome he was. He was coming forward as well and something in her told her to turn her face away from him.

"Hey," Sora called standing before her. "What's up?"

She was at a sort of loss at his random greeting but she replied, "Not much. What's the matter?"

"No matter. I was just gonna ask you if you wanted to come with us since you were supposed to be tutoring Riku here."

"I'm not being tutored," the other boy snapped. "I'm not you. I just need the information I missed. That's all."

"Right, right."

As the two boys continued to jab at each other in a way that was so painfully full of camaraderie, she felt an ache in her chest like someone was hollowing her out from the inside. She forcibly turned her eyes away from the warm scene.

"Anyway," Riku went on, trying to school his expression from the carefree laugh he had just a second prior, "I think that we should try talking again, since earlier today we didn't do so well. I..." He looked away before meeting her gaze again. "I may need your help, so I want to go over the material with you. Please."

_Please. _That one word sent a ripple through the wall she had erected between them, drawing her eyes up to his once more. Sora wagged his eyebrows and grinned at her in invitation. She supposed that this was how those two managed to get everyone to love them – they were sincere clowns.

"I am _not _getting in that."

Sora frowned. "Why not? Its safe."

"_Safe?_"

The girl stared incredulously at him as he untied a boat from a small dock that was hidden off the side of the beach. There were three boats tied there and Riku and Sora were each releasing one from the wooden dock. Their fingers worked with the ease of familiarity that came with doing something frequently over a long period of time. How many times had these idiots set sail? Was this why they were missing for so long – they were lost at sea?

"Where are we even going? Not that I intended to get in that thing," she amended before they got the wrong idea.

Riku straightened, holding the end of the rope for his boat in one hand, keeping the craft from being carried away with the tide. "We're headed out there."

He pointed out into the distance to a nearby island that looked like a lump in the water. It wasn't so far that the trip would take more than an hour at most and using the little wooden dingies didn't seem so foolish anymore, but she still wasn't sure. She had seen the island in the distance many times, wondering it it had ever been inhabited by any of their ancestors though she had never assumed that it would have been by people her age.

The boys were ready – they were settling into their respective modes of transport and setting themselves to set off, when, to her surprise, Riku looked up to her again and reached out his hand. She wanted to asking him if he was crazy, if he was trying to kill her, if they even knew what they were doing. But there was something in the shine of his eyes that were made more green by the rolling waves behind them that made him seem more confident, more fierce, more like a an who had seen trouble and overcome it. It made her trust his judgment and rest her hand in his, allowing him to help her as she stepped into his boat and placed her bag at her feet where the water couldn't easily reach it. He smiled then and took up his oar, rowing in time with Sora who had pushed off the second before.

Just when she was beginning to see something new and mature in him, Riku just had to do something to ruin it, accepting Sora's challenge to a race and practically shooting off across the water like a madman. Yuri grabbed the sides of their boat in surprise as the boys rocketed toward the island that was becoming clearer and clearer to her eyes. There was another dock on on side and a bit of land that stuck up from the water, a bent tree giving the little addition some character. She saw tree houses in the foliage higher up on the main island and bridges making pathways across the natural drops in the rock. It was beautiful.

"You feeling alright?" Riku was panting, their boat drifting up to the dock to be tied; judging by the grin he wore and slight space between the two crafts she assumed that he had won.

"I'm fine. But this," she said gesturing widely to the new landscape. "This is amazing."

He helped her up onto the dock and he and Sora went on and on about who won and how and the condition of the water and how, all of a sudden, they were concerned that Kairi would be upset with them for leaving her behind. Yuri, on the other hand, was grateful that they were obviously giving her space to look around and gape without being judged. She refused to believe that they had built all of this. Some of the bridges were way too dangerous for children to have constructed. And where did they get all that wood from to use? And how had none of these things come down as yet with that storm that had struck the Islands all those months ago? Were they magic or something?

She looked over at the two friends, bumping shoulders with each other and trying to get the other into a head lock and gave up the thought. The universe would need to be punished if it made the mistake of giving magic to those two.

"Let's study up here," Sora suggested, leading them into the little shack constructed at the base of the bridge to the little additional island.

'Up here' turned out to be another shack that was on the second level of the island. There were rags hanging in the corner of the room but otherwise, it looked surprisingly fine. She sat on the ground with the others and took out her books.

"Who built all this?" she inquired. "Not you guys, right?"

"Nope," Sora replied, retrieving some homework from his bag. "We met it here...most of it anyway. We didn't really add anything."

"I see."

It was when he settle down with his calculator and pencil that she realized that Riku was right at her side, opening his books as well.

"I'm sorry about today."

She looked over at him with a blink, unsure about whether he was talking to her since his gaze was glued to his book. "Who do you mean?"

"You," he replied. "I'm sorry to you. I shouldn't have said what I did. You were just acting strange and my concern came out badly."

Yuri tilted her head slightly. "You were concerned?"

He finally returned her gaze and nodded. "You even missed a couple classes. I wanted to makes sure you were OK even now. So, are you? OK, I mean."

In the shelter of the shack, the blue in his eyes became more prominent, cool and trustworthy. She wondered if he did it on purpose. It would be a useful skill if it was. But he didn't seem to be insincere in his questions – he appeared almost worried about her.

Imagine that: Riku Yamaguchi was worried about her.

She chuckled at the absurdity of it, shaking her head. "Why would you care?"

Rather than take him off guard, her question only made him even more serious. "Because I don't like to seem people get hurt. Least of all, people I know. If weird stuff start happening to you, you have to tell someone. If you think people will think you're weird-"

"Or weirder than usual," Sora corrected.

"-then you can come to me or Sora. We won't judge you. I promise."

"We're all weird, anyway."

_His promises mean nothing, _hissed a voice in her mind. _Who is he to ask for your trust anyway?_

Yuri pressed her lips together. For a moment she seriously considered telling them about the monster she saw that morning. What did she have to lose? They trusted her enough to bring them to their secret hangout, so why couldn't she at least try? Sora seemed gullible enough to believe anything though Riku may have been the type to like a good story. It wasn't as if she had anything to lose, regardless. So she opened her mouth...

And they all looked up in surprise as the sound of something slamming into the rock face outside jolted them all from their casual conversation.


	8. Chapter 8

He sensed it before he heard it – Riku's eyes were already lifting before the Heartless outside attacked the island. Conditioned to be ready for combat at any time, both boys shot up and ran to see what was going on.

"Riku!" Sayuri shuffled behind them on wobbly legs and clung to the frame of the doorway to merely poke her head out to see them.

He met her terrified gaze. "Stay there, OK?"

"You're leaving me here?!" she exclaimed.

Her arms flailed in displeasure at him just as the Heartless landed onto the bridge connecting them to the other side of the island's rise. It was oddly humanoid looking at Sora's height though it was crouched into a feral stance and roared with a mouth that tore open half its head. Glowing yellow eyes were focused on them as the figure opened its mouth, the Heartless symbol splashed across its cheek, and shot an red energy ball the size of a basketball at Sora who was standing on the other end of the bridge.

"Sora!" Sayuri was in distress now. "You idiot, move!"

Riku held out an arm to warn her to to stay back. In one smooth motion the brunet descended into his trademark fighting stance, his Keyblade appearing in his ready grip in a shaft of light. The weapon fit perfectly in his hand, silver with a guard like wings and a blue and yellow star at the tip wound to the two columns of the blade itself. Though Riku didn't exactly make it a habit to know the names of Sora's myriad of Keyblades, the paopu fruit charm swinging from it was too obvious to miss.

_Oathkeeper, _he mused. _How cute of him. _

With 'Blade in hand, Sora easily deflected the projectile sending it straight back to its owner who easily evaded it. All of a sudden Riku felt a hand fist his shirt; Yuri had hobbled from the shack onto the sand landing with him, shaking now.

"I don't know what the hell that is in Sora's hand but that thing..." She curled up behind him. "Or how the hell he did that...or why the hell this isn't weirding you out...but that thing gave Mrs Shiraki a heart attack. It attacked the car this morning and I didn't know what to do and she was so scared she had a heart attack."

Her face pressed against his arm; was she crying? He wanted to look, but he didn't want to jostle her. Sora glanced back at them and gave Riku an 'I got this' thumbs up which left him wide open for the creature to rush up on him, barely three feet away and coming closer by the second. In a panic, the silver haired boy summoned his own Keyblade – there was a loud squeak from the vicinity of his shoulder that sounded oddly like a blunette he knew – and aimed at his goofy best friend.

"_Aeroga!_"

In response to his spell, a pod of wind encased the brunet, its gusts forcefully struck the Heartless and blasted it away causing it to cry out in pain. It hit the ground hard but recovered quickly, rolling up into a crouch, one hand clutching its chest that was leaking darkness like blood from wound and the other clawing the ground to anchor itself. It hissed at them both. When its face turned to Riku once more, though he stepped forward, being brought up slightly short because of the hand grabbing his shirt and restraining him firmly from getting any closer to it, the thing looked in his direction longer than necessary before melting into the ground and disappearing.

She watched the thing until it was completely gone, but not after spooking her enough to give her nightmares. Sayuri wanted to drop to her knees in relief as the tension in her legs dissipated. Sora came back toward them, swinging his weird looking fairy club until it too disappeared in another beam of light.

The darker, more questionable looking one in Riku's hand vanished as well as he turned to check on her. "Are you alright?"

She took a step back from them both – even when she stumbled she held out a hand to ward them off. "Somebody better explain what just happened. No crap. No sugar coating. I want the truth."

Green eyes met blue eyes and a silent agreement was passed between them. Yuri knew that she would be ridiculous to grab a stick to try and beat someone over the head with it after what she just saw them do, but she sure hadn't lost faith in her ability to run.

_If it even matters, _she thought to herself, remembering the wall of wind Riku had summoned with just a word. Would he stop her from running too? Did they bring her here just to scare her? Too many questions, not enough answers.

Sora scratched the back of his neck with a sheepishly innocent smile. "Its kind of a long story,"

Yuri folded her arms firmly and narrowed her eyes at him. "Humor me."

Green met blue again making her wonder if she said the wrong thing.

She definitely did.

Question marks were floating around in her mind; confusion fogged her brain, but Sora continued on his story. "...and then he handed Kairi's note to me and after I read it this door of light opened!" He was gesturing widely, his hands miming an aircraft next. "And then we were shooting through the sky and we dropped right into the water just off from the beach a couple days ago."

"So, wait, wait: you plummeted through the sky from some other dimension and didn't go into shock and die with the force of how hard you hit the water?"

This brought the brunet up short. "Well..."

"And you," she said, pointing at the silver haired boy at her side, their school work long forgotten, "were evil?"

He flushed in embarrassment. "Sort of? I wasn't really 'evil'," he explained. "I just was being influenced by the darkness. I mean, I knew what I was doing, but I thought I was doing the right thing and I thought Sora was just running around playing adventurer -"

"Hey!"

"...there was always this sense of accomplishment when I gained more power and..."

She met his eye levelly as his words trailed off. They had told her everything from their plans to run away from Destiny Islands to their last battle with Xemnas. the head of the big bad Organization XIII. They had told her how they sent Kairi back home ahead of them though she was borrowed again after some Nobody – she still thought the term was an insult – named Axel attacked her. They had told her how she had traces of darkness on her from that creature – a Heartless – following her around for whatever reason and that because of it, the scent triggered distaste in Riku, who was like a drug user recovering from the substance.

"Do I look like an idiot?" Riku blinked but she merely shook her head at him. "OK, sure, you guys may be magicians – I'll give you that much for you slight of hand tricks – but there's no way that you two not only saved our world, but traveled to different ones and defeated that many strong opponents and _lost your heart_ and..."

All of a sudden she was back in the street, watching Mrs Shiraki's glittery pink heart rise from her body that had been frozen in fear.

Yuri shook her head roughly to shake those thoughts away. "I must have hit my head somewhere."

Sora frowned. "Sayuri..."

She pushed herself back back from her delusional companions in hopes that their crazy wouldn't rub off on her any further. "For all I know, you guys may have staged it all from that thing stalking me to that thing randomly showing up here."

Riku snapped out of his shocked silence. "Sayuri!"

The girl's eyes flashed at him in time to see him hold out his fist, his 'Blade immediately appearing in his grip in a shaft of light. She shuffled backward, scrambling and lifting up her Biology book to defend herself; as hopeless as it may have been, she wasn't going to lose points for not trying.

"You can only believe this? You only believe us as far as the Keyblade?"

"I hardly believe that! Its a magic trick. People do it all the time."

"Are you serious right now, Sayuri? I cast a spell that protect Sora from that Heartless. You saw the proof that Heartless exist. That were weren't just making it up. What good would it do us to stage anything?"

"I don't know but leave me out of all this weirdness!" She moved back even more. "I don't want to be involved with you crazy people and your monsters. Keep all of your stories and magic tricks away from me!"

"You can't just take yourself out of it." Sora frowned. "That Heartless already started following you."

"Isn't that your fault, too?" she replied, turning on him. "There weren't any attacks the whole time you were gone. You brought that thing back with you. This is all _your _fault." She shot each of them a pointed look.

"And we're going to fix it," Sora assured her, "but we're going to need your help."

Yrui scoffed, shoving her things into her bag in a rush, ignoring the book that fell when she stood and started her sprint from the shack, almost tumbling down the steps to the sand. She couldn't deal with any of this anymore. She just wanted to go home before she ended up nuts just like the two chasing behind her. Their footsteps were pounding on the wooden platform at the second floor only fueling her sprint to the boats in an effort to get away from the demented island. She threw her body into the boat she and Riku had rode in, hastily pulling at the knot he used to secure it.

"Sayuri! Stop!"

Just hearing the silver haired boy's voice grated on her nerves, confused her heart and poured more oil on the fire under her to escape. Finally having released the rope she began to paddle like a madwoman just as the boys made it to the shore. She gave a cautious look over her shoulder – the only reason Sora didn't jump into the water and try to swim after her was because of the restraining hand on his shoulder. Blue green eyes watched her coolly from the sand and she shuddered under the weigh of them before turning her back and continuing her journey free of pursuers.

This time she couldn't call it a coincidence. When she saw that Heartless, she got the distinct feeling that she was looking at Takashima's missing brother and her boyfriend, Ritsu. When she felt the similarity, she couldn't help but call his name in her mind. When she called, it looked dead at her.

And when it looked at her, very softly she heard _Lily._


	9. Chapter 9

The classroom was silent at the end of the day, the students having long since abandoned the building to go home. Sayuri sat at Takashima's desk across from him and helped him mark the answers to the English test he had given them the day before. He had been planning to give the papers back that very day but after some issues among the faculty that had been eating up his time, he found that it was easier to call in his ever available helper to assist in reducing the workload.

Yuri pushed her glasses up her nose as she took in the elementary handwriting of her classmate. Sure, English wasn't easy, but it wasn't rocket science either. Not that she was going to down anyone in their attempts to pursue knowledge; just try to be neater about it. She tried not to sigh and present herself as a target for Takashima's judgy eyebrows again. Off and on he had been shooting her these looks, doing funny things with his brows that told her that he was more than just a little upset with her for abandoning the mission he had given to her after "not giving it enough time to work", as he classified it. She didn't know what else she was supposed to give. Her time? She had done that and it had gotten her a Heartless monster running after her. Her attention? She had done that as well and she ended up with a story straight out of a fantasy novel and a theory she just couldn't bear to rationalize.

"Sensei..."She placed the paper in her hand down and blinked at the desk.

"Uh-huh?"

"Do you ever...you know, think of Ritsu? Like what he would be like if he were still here?"

The silence of the room was oppressive. She began to wish that he hadn't said anything, but she didn't feel anger coming from him – when she looked up at his lost expression, sadness was most dominant in his features.

The man shrugged and combed a hand through his orange locks, something he only did when he was troubled. "I do, sometimes," he admitted. "He would be the same age as you. He used to be upset that he was shorter, but he had just gotten into his growth spurt and was overtaking you." A wistful smile tugged at his lips. "I could only imagine how much he'd have grown now."

Sayuri lowered her eyes with a short nibble of her lip. "Have you given up hope?"

Her questions were completely inappropriate for their setting but the last bell had rung; now he was just her old friend. She considered that she shouldn't have been opening up fresh wounds for him or herself. She knew that it was leading them both down a path they only took once a year, yet her mouth wouldn't stop working.

"I haven't. I haven't ever thought of him as having passed on."

"Neither have I," Shinichiro declared. "I look at Riku and his friends and how they came back after so long and I just think that if they could, Ritsu could, too. I wouldn't be surprised if that airhead just washes up on shore one day on a makeshift raft. You know how he was good with putting together things like that,"he added with a soft smile of pride. "Though he'd probably go running to you before I could even get my hands on him."

Those words brought her up short and the form of the Heartless came back to her mind.

"What if..." She swallowed. "What if he didn't come back the way you thought he would? What if he came back looking and acting completely different?"

Shinichiro pressed his lips together in thought. "I've considered that, too. But ultimately, I just want my brother back. I'm willing to work with him through any issues or injuries he may have developed after being away for so long. It would just be worth it to have him back."

_I'm not so sure, _she thought to herself, involuntarily remembering the way the Heartless' mouth tore open to accommodate the energy ball it blasted at Sora in a rage. How in the world were you supposed to defeat something like that?

_Riku and Sora obviously could do it. Didn't you see them? _A part of her brain argued. _Or are you afraid that they'll kill him?_

There had to be a way to save him. If those two could fight him, then Yuri did not doubt that there was a way to save him. The only thing standing in her way was her lack of experience dealing with Heartless – which meant that she would have to go to the only people that did. But even that wasn't an option. Not after she stole a boat and paddled away from them as if her life depended on it. There had to be someone else she could talk to.

"Hey, Ichi..." Her eyes lifted to the man before her who immediately gave her his attention at the sound of his name. "Do you know Usami Kairi?"

Yuri pushed her glasses up her nose with a deep breath as she mentally prepare herself for what she was about to do. She wasn't exactly a social butterfly; Yuuzuki was only her best friend because of how often they were paired together in class. The hall was bustling with students collecting and putting away books before they went out for their lunch break, all of them creating a steady thrum of noise around her that somehow calmed the jumping nerves in her fingers that had them shaking.

She took another glance over her shoulder. At last, Kairi had exited her classroom, meeting a first year – _Selphie _was the girl's name if she remembered correctly – at her locker and smiling widely, most likely chatting about their plans for lunch like normal high school girls. Because Zuki got detention for forgetting to turning in her homework – which was an epic stroke of luck on Yuri's behalf so she wouldn't have to explain anything to her – Sayuri was on her own with her half thought through plan. Her heart had begun to pound in her chest and she knew that it was time to act before Kairi left for the cafeteria and took her seat with the two boys she least wanted to see. With all her courage loaded into one mental cannonball, the blue haired girl spun out in the center of the hallway just as the girl in question was moving from her locker.

"Kairi!" she shouted with hands fisted at her sides. "I need to talk to you."

Everyone in the hall turned to stare at her as her face burned in embarrassment. It was only then that Yuri realized that her voice had come out much louder than she had intended, pitched higher in her fear. At least Kairi wasn't laughing at her although it was like she hit pots together just to get her attention.

The red haired girl wasn't in any of her classes, so she never really got the chance to see her face to see. Now that she did, her bravado was beginning to fade. Kairi was gorgeous, her hair cut in fashionable layers and her blue eye sparkling with humor even as she approached the blunette with a dubious looking Selphie at her side.

"Um." Her slim fingers tucked some hair behind her ear. "Is there something wrong?"

"Actually," Yuri replied, mouth suddenly dry. "I have some questions to ask you, if you don't mind."

"Questions?" She nodded slightly. "Sure. OK. I'd like to ask you something as well."

There were so many possibilities swirling around in her mind. Did the girl hate her for forcing her down the stairwell that day? She didn't look like she hated her, but maybe she was just good at hiding things.

_Really? Animal shelter volunteering, fairy looking, envy of the entire cheer squad Kairi has the capacity for hate? _her mind questioned.

When the two of them took a seat on one of the benches outside under a large cherry blossom tree, Yuri just felt silly. Especially as her companion gave her an encouraging smile to say that she was listening.

"First of all, I'm sorry about that day. I didn't mean to force you and your friends down the stairs." _I'm better off with a preemptive strike, _Yuri reasoned. "I really didn't know that that was going to happen. I just panicked and..."

Kairi's Mother Theresa smile caused her words to trail off into silence. "Its OK. I knew that there was no way that everything they were saying about you was true. Especially not after you called Riku that night and offered to help him study."

"How do you know about that?"

"He and Sora were at my house doing homework," she replied, smoothing down the pleats of her skirt.

Some boys ran past with their soccer ball, the distraction of them passing it back an forth with only their knees and shoulders gave Yuri the time to think. How many more people did he tell? It was logical to think that only because Kairi was present when he answered the call did she know, but somehow when it came to Riku, logic was slowly becoming less of a strong suit.

Sayuri looked down at her fingers that were folded in her lap. "How much do those two tell you? Were you with them when you disappeared, too? Do you know about what they were doing all that time? Do you know about the Heartless and Nobodies and Organization XIII, too?"

When she finally lifted her eyes to meet Kairi's she saw that she had shocked the girl to silence. "Um, well..." The redhead tilted her head. "If you know that much then that means that one of the boys told you. Which also means that you believe their stories, or at least you're trying to." She offered her companion a smile that by some magic served to calm her down. "I think that whatever you wish to ask me, you should ask them instead. It seems that you want to know more about what they learned on their adventures, but I can't really tell you much, unfortunately, because I wasn't conscious for most of it."

Before she could ask about what the hell kind of excuse was that, Yuri remembered Sora saying something along the lines of Kairi losing her heart – _Like Mrs Shiraki almost did, _her mind supplied – but rather than it being taken by a Heartless, it somehow ended up inside of him, leaving her body as a shell. She almost felt bad for the girl in front of her, but the indulgent expression on her face kind of killed those feelings – why feel bad for someone who didn't seem to see themselves as pitiful?

"I don't want to ask them," Yuri said in response. "I wanted to ask you. Those two seem to be all about destroying Heartless. What I wanted to know was...if there was a way to save them. Because what if someone is still in there? According to them, Heartless come from people," she went on, now more animated than before, "which means that they're killing people!"

"Sayuri." Kairi's voice was firm and sharp enough to make the other girl recoil. "They're not murderers." As if just realizing what she said, she looked around before returning her gaze to the blunette who was now frowning. "Heartless aren't people - they are the embodiment of the darkness in people's hearts. Why are you so worked up about this? What they did – the fight that they've won – saved us all from the darkness that would have swallowed our world. Both Sora and Riku."

"You mean, Riku, the one who was a vessel of darkness himself?" Yuri spat.

"Yes," Kairi snapped. "Riku, who did his best to get Sora's memories back and get his Nobody to be one with him again. Riku, who gave in to the darkness after he had overcome it just to have more power in order to save his best friend's life. The very same Riku who saved _my _life. He may not be perfect, but he's come through for everyone when it counted. He's a hero," she declared, "just like Sora. And we have both of them to thank for being able to sit here today."

The set of her shoulders weas not to argued with. Sayuri sighed and shook her head in exasperation. She should have known that Kairi would side with them. She should have known that they all wanted to do nothing but destroy him as if he had no sanity left in him. _But I've seen it, _she thought to herself as she stood.

"I won't let them kill him," she promised. "If they can't save him, I'll do it myself."

Kairi blinked, an obviously bemused expression on her face. "Kill who? Save who?"

"Oh, they didn't tell you? I thought they told you everything." Yuri leveled the other girl with a withering look. "There is a Heartless on the island. It followed them back from wherever they came from and who knows how many more are coming? All I know is that I won't let them kill the one here now. I won't let them kill Ritsu."

The blunette turned on her heels and walked across the green. She didn't need their help. She didn't need their supposed "expertise". He still recognized her and that was all that mattered. Her feet took her out of the school gate, completely ignoring the school bus to catch a taxi out to the beach where Sora and Riku docked their boats. She looked out, over the rippling waves to the island in the distance and she wondered why Ritsu decided to attack there at that very moment. Was he following the Keyblades that were present, or was he there for her? And even though she would tell them all that he wasn't a monster, why did he attack Mrs. Shiraki and attempt to take her heart? Why did he stop?

Just thinking of all this impossible stuff was going to give her a headache, she just knew it.

"Oh, Ristu," she groaned into the sea salt filled air. "What in the world have you gotten yourself into now?"

There was the sound of something opening – a whooshing of air as if someone had tore open a vacuum in space – but just as quickly, there was silence and she knew that she was no longer alone. Whether it was Ritsu or not, she had seen this thing pack a massive punch and she did not want that punch aimed her way.

Two hesitant footsteps moved in her direction. Yuri took a deep breath before she was able to lift her eyes and glance at the newcomer. It was the same black creature, about a foot shorter than her and gazing at her with beady gold eyes that shined in the light of the afternoon sun. Its scrawny form was hunched over and the antennae on its head were crooked and curved behind the head as its boot-like feet shuffled another three steps toward her like it was trying not to spook her. She would have been lying if she said her hands weren't shaking but Yuri stood her ground as the creature of darkness came closer and closer with each passing second.

"R-Ritsu?" Her voice came out at a whisper, but it was enough.

Its head tilted to the side in jerky movements. _Li...Lil...Lily. _

The creature reached out its hand, palm stretch outward toward her. No violent gestures, no threatening auras – it was just there, waiting.

_Lily, _it said, more firmly this time.

"Is that you, Ritsu?" Yuri took a few more steps forward. "Where have you been?"

Her feet took her forward a bit more, her own hand stretching out the same way to press her palm against his wispy, colder one. It wasn't a steady pressure as with a solid surface and she wondered if this was truly what darkness felt like. She recognized this feeling – it was the same calm she felt when she had woken up from the best sleep of her life, the same sense of turbulence she felt after Riku made her out to be a wild animal.

"It was all you," she said softly, watching in disbelief as a crooked blue line carved a crooked smile into the blackness under the Heartless' eyes. "You've been watching me – not the Keyblade wielders – all this time, haven't you?"

_Love...Lily... _It croaked in a raspy, gravelly voice that sounded like Ritsu had a cold.

Yuri let out a choked laugh and fought against the stinging in her eyes. "And I love - "

The tell tale sound as a Keyblade being drawn drew her eyes up in a flash to focus her gaze at the edge of the sand where a familiar duo was standing, both ready for battle.

"Sayuri!" Sora called.

"Yuri." The older boy moved forward with his bat wing 'Blade in position that would make his friends in the kendo club ask him what in the hell he was doing. "Move away from that thing."

Scowling, she stood between them and her dark boyfriend with arms out like a barrier. "No."

"Yuri, move!"

"Go to hell, Riku. I won't let you kill him!"

"We've got to do something," Sora growled, finally breaking free from his best friend and rushing to the two forms lower down on the beach.

There was a monstrous roar of rage and Sayuri was shoved 15 feet across the sand, head banging into the hard packed earth before she could even blink.


End file.
